UNSW's diversity guidelines spark Captain Cook 'invasion' debate

People marched throughout the nation on Australia Day 2016, and called for it to be renamed 'Invasion Day'

People marched throughout the nation on Australia Day 2016, and called for it to be renamed 'Invasion Day' Source: AAP

The University of New South Wales says Captain James Cook 'invaded' Australia in 1788, rejecting the term 'settled,' which has commonly been used. Academics and experts have rejected suggestions a University of NSW language 'tool kit' for its students is political correctness gone mad. Debate has exploded over the four-year-old set of guidelines, which refer to the 'invasion', not the settlement, of Australia, after a Sydney newspaper ran an outraged front page slamming the guide as a 'whitewashing' and rewriting of Australia's history. The guidelines, in the university's Diversity Toolkit, says 'Australia was not settled peacefully, it was invaded, occupied and colonised'. Dong Xing has the story.



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